Chapter 5 A/N I do not own Harry Potter
Fred and George took a shortcut through the castle to get to Quirrell's office so that Cassie could turn in her exam then turned expectantly towards her.
"Well?" one of them asked.
"It's a beautiful day out, mind showing me your courtyards?" Cassie asked, loving their groans of disappointment.
"You don't really have a plan do you?"
"No, I do, I just haven't set it in motion yet." Cassie smirked. "I'm missing a few things. And I would so desperately want to see it play out before I leave. I took the liberty of perusing the joke shop in Hogsmeade. Quaint, but it has some excellent things."
"Officially, we had to wait for this year to see hogsmeade." Fred said
"Unofficially, you two found a way out without anyone knowing.." she said with a smirk
"Smart one, I think she'd be a good Ravenclaw."
"Don't disagree with you there, brother."
"Well, Professor Dumbledore was the one to solidify my plan, if I'm being completely honest." Cassie started.
"Dumbledore? Really?"
"Yes, he has quite the sense of humor, that man. Actually helped me prank Professor McGonagall during my Transfiguration Exams." Cassie said with a nod.
"Wicked!" they said in unison.
"So what are we doing?" one of them asked.
"You two will place it wherever you see fit. I just need to finish some charms on it before I'm done. I have to play with the charms to make it bigger and flashier; I do need some help with some of the spells, I haven't mastered them yet. But you two seem like bright students." she said, not quite answering their question.
"Us? Bright students?" Fred asked through peals of laughter.
"Our sides are hurting!" George said as he tried to catch his breath.
"Okay, do either of you know how to delay the charm? It works wonders when done immediately, but then it would be obvious who's done it as it has to be held above everyone."
"We can enchant it to float above the heads." Fred said
"I've been practicing the Adtineo charm."
"What's that do?" Cassie asked, confused
"It delays something. So far I've got it to delay for about thirty seconds."
"Perfect, if you can get it closer to a minute, all we'd need is for Fred to hover it high above the people's heads, and whoever walks beneath with a radius of five feet will be covered from head to toe in hair!" Cassie said excitedly. "I've been trying to get the hair to be multi-colored, but no such luck. Everyone I've tried it on just gets covered in their hair color."
"Let's see this thing then." George said with a smile.
"Here," Cassie said, handing them a stone coloured miniature coffer with dark brown vines painted on the sides. "Once it's hovering, the lid has to be taken off for the charm to work. It's almost as if a spotlight was being pointed down, except it's not visible. Whenever I do it, I'm always with my best friend and one of us levitates it while the other removes the lid and turns it around, but with the delay, it can just be levitated upside down without the lid. The most people I've been able to prank with it is around ten, but I tried it over the door of one of the classrooms." Cassie finished explaining.
"I really hope you transfer here. We'd be the dream team!" Gred said
"You'd be a nightmare!" Tommy said, walking up to the bench where they were seated. "So, Gryffindor, right?"
"Nah, she's too smart. I'd say Ravenclaw." Fred said.
"We'll just have to wait and see." George added.
"Where will we set it off?" Cassie asked, changing the subject blatantly.
"Entrance Hall, or Great Hall? Which do you think?" Fred said
"Above the door, it's stone colored, so no one will notice it." George supplied
"When will we set it off?" Cassie asked.
"Lunch is in ten minutes, I'll cast Adtineo now and we can set it up and turn it when there's a lot of people walking in."
"What's the prank?" Tommy asked, curiously.
"What do you say, should we tell him?" the twins asked in unison.
"Let's not." Cassie said conspiratorially, "Although, now he won't get pranked because he just heard where and when it is." she added, pouting.
George cast the Adtineo charm and the four went on their way. Tommy and Cassie hid behind the statue in the Entrance hall while Fred and George cast the hover charm and placed it perfectly inconspicuously over the door. They waited for a few minutes until people started coming down for lunch so that Cassie could flip it over and remove the lid. The last person to be affected before the charm wore off was Professor Flitwick as he walked in for lunch. The Weasley twins, Cassie and Tommy all high-fived as they walked into the Great hall and burst out laughing along with everyone else, everyone looked like a hairy monster. Cassie quickly spotted Professor Flitwick walking over and schooled her features into one of innocent laughter.
"Ms. Gratien, I do hope you weren't a part of this prank! You are still hoping to transfer next year, aren't you?" he asked sternly.
"She had nothing to do with it, Professor, it was my idea." the twins said in unison
"Hey! Fred, It was so my idea!"
"Was not!"
"Was too." they bickered back and forth.
"Well, whoever it was," Flitwick said seemingly annoyed, "Used great charmwork. Five points to Gryffindor, for the charmwork." he said, making the twins' faces light up. "And five points from Gryffindor for the prank." he added, making them look at each other as if saying 'what can we do.'
"Wanna have lunch with us?" Fred asked
"I should really get back to the Three Broomsticks. Astronomy isn't my best subject and I should study." she said with a disappointed look.
"You two have really outdone yourselves!" came a voice from behind her.
"Flitwick looks like Cousin It!" came another one.
"Huh?" the four boys said in confusion looking at him.
"Really, Addams Family? None of you have seen it." he said disappointed.
"I have! 'They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky they're all together ooky, the Addams Family,'" Cassie piped up then snapped her fingers in tune with the song.
"Thank you!" he said, pointing at her. "Who are you?" he asked, confused.
"Cassiopée Gratien." she answered, holding her hand out. "Cassie for short."
"Oh, so you're Cassie." the cute one with grey eyes and brown hair said in realization.
"Shut it!" Tomy whispered, elbowing him.
"I'm Cedric Diggory."
"Leon Holland." they said, taking her hand and shaking it in turns.
"It's a pleasure to meet you both, but I really should get going, I have to study for the last Exam."
"Exam?" Cedric asked
"Yes, I want to transfer here next year. So they're testing me to make sure I don't have to repeat the first year." Cassie explained.
"What test do you have left?" Leon asked.
"Astronomy tonight."
"I've my notes right here if you want them. It's the same notebook since first year with an extension charm. The end-of-year exam was rather easy, I still remember what was important on it. I can help you if you'd like?" Leon offered.
"Ravenclaw?" Cassie asked, making Tommy snicker from beside her.
"No, Hufflepuff." he answered slowly.
"I'm just going to give up figuring out the houses to be honest. I much prefer how they do it at Beauxbatons." Cassie said, throwing her hands up. "But I will take you up on the offer, Astronomy class is only twice a month for first years." Cassie said, pointing to the notebook gratefully.
"This prank was your idea, wasn't it?" Cedric asked with mirthful eyes.
"Not if a teacher asks, it wasn't." Cassie answered with a smile.
"You don't mind if we repeat it later, do you? It's seriously the best prank we've done all year!" Fred asked.
"Sure." Cassie said. "But if you sell it, I get royalties." she warned walking over to one of the tables with Leon. The two sat down and he pointed out the more important constellations and stars as well as their positions relative to the moon as they ate. They stayed in the Great Hall well after lunch was over and studied some more.
"I feel bad that you're studying when it's supposed to be a holiday." Cassie said after they went back over the constellations for the tenth time.
"I was gonna do the same anyways. Professor Sinistra said I had to reinforce some of what was taught first year because I wasn't doing so well. It's a win-win situation if ever there was one." he said gracefully.
"Still, we've been at this for hours. It's dark out already?!" she asked, astonished that she hadn't even noticed the time fly.
"I'd say it's around seven. Dinner should start soon enough." he said with a shrug looking up at the ceiling. "So how did you get everyone to grow so much hair?" he asked, curious.
"I modified the hair replenishing charm. My first day in potions class I accidentally made a small-ish explosion and seared my eyebrows off. I was panicking, mainly because I didn't want anyone to see me after I left the classroom and locked myself in my room and tried the charm. I overpowered it just a bit and suddenly had hair all over my face and neck. Gabrielle had to fetch the guérisseuse, the healer I think, to come and reverse the charm and give me a Calming Draught." she said sheepishly. "My classmates made fun of me for the rest of the week, so I decided to get even and figured out how to contain the charm until I let it out. The first try was hilarious, she was covered from head to toe, even her shoes grew hair! Suffice it to say, the next person to tease me was pranked. After that, when the teachers weren't looking, I would prank however much I liked. Took a liking to it, made my days brighter whenever I did." she finished, giggling at the memory of her twin covered in hair.
"You seem worse than the Weasley twins." he said truthfully.
"Nah, we're pretty much on par." Cassie said nonchalantly, looking back down at the notes.
"Can I ask why you want to transfer? From the way you speak, you seem very fond of Beauxbatons." he asked timidly.
"Fundamental differences with some of the people there." Cassie said evasively while she thought 'two of the people there.'
"Couldn't you just ignore them?"
"Even if I could ignore them, it would only be for a short time. Not the eight years we spend there." Cassie answered truthfully. "Besides, I read about Hogwarts, but never would I have imagined it to be so breathtaking. Beauxbatons is beautiful, elegant and refined, but this castle is just so much more fascinating and intriguing. And I feel like it's where I belong." she said softly.
"Well, I wouldn't know what to say to that." he admitted quietly as the Wealey twins walked in with boisterous laughter.
"We figured it out!" Fred said. Or was it George?
"Tested it on some Slytherins."
"And now they're walking around with hair as red as ours!" they parried.
"Really? How? You have to tell me everything." Cassie said excitedly, the notebook lay forgotten on the table in front of her as the Weasley twins told her all the details.
At some point the hall began to fill up and Leon left to have dinner with his friends. She didn't care that everyone was looking at her curiously, she was having the time of her life exchanging prank ideas with the two brothers. They had dinner once the food appeared on the tables and kept on talking for a bit after it disappeared.
"We'd best get going," one of them said, George, maybe.
"People to see," Fred said.
"Pranks to pull." and back to George.
"And it's nearly curfew, we only break it to sneak to the kitchens, Hogsmeade, or for a prank." Fred said as an afterthought.
"See you Cassie!" they said in unison
"Bye guys." she called out, noticing she still had Leon's notebook and not seeing him anywhere in the Hall.
She looked at the clock and noticed it was around nine. She had two and a half hours before she was needed in the Astronomy Tower and decided to go exploring the castle for a bit. She quickly got lost however, when she made it to the third floor and walked down a deserted corridor with a locked door at the end. She shrugged her shoulders and turned around to leave. She decided that she'd had enough exploring and made her way up the stairs, occasionally stopping to talk to a portrait for directions. She made it to the Tower with an hour to spare and waited patiently for Professor Sinistra, Leon's notes in her lap.
"Ms. Gratien, You're early." Professor Sinistra said.
"Oui, Madame, I was afraid I would get lost, so I came up from the Great Hall, I did get lost, but it was an abandoned corridor so I just turned around the way I came and then kept walking up the stairs asking the portraits how to get here." she rambled on nervously before Sinistra interrupted her.
"Ms. Gratien, please, follow me."
"Of course, Professor." she said quietly, Astronomy really wasn't her best subject.
"You have an hour and a half to plot the star chart and name as many stars and constellations as you can." she instructed.
"Yes, professor." Cassie said, moving to a telescope and adjusting the lens.
"May I have the notebook before you begin?" she said, looking at it.
"Yes professor. It's Leon Holland's anyway, I was meant to return it earlier but I couldn't find him."
"I will return it to him tomorrow, Ms. Gratien. Your time begins now." she said, flipping a sand clock and sitting down to monitor her.
"Your time is up, Ms. Gratien. May I have your star chart?" she said, holding out her hand for the piece of parchment.
"Here you are professor." Cassie said politely.
"I need to check it immediately for placement accuracy, you may wait for your results." she said.
"Thank you, professor." Cassie said nervously, leaning against the wall and looking back up at the starry sky.
She was daydreaming-or was it dreaming awake at night- about what it would be like to finally be away from her family. She realized how terrible it sounded, but she truly felt nothing good towards them at the moment. Perhaps, given time and space, she could move past her grandfather's crimes and look at herself and her siblings as she used to, but for now, all she felt when she saw her reflection was disgust. All she felt when she thought about her parents was fear, and all she felt when she thought about her brother and sister not condemning him for his crimes was disappointment
"Well, some of the stars are misaligned, and the spelling could do with some work, but other than that, Ms. Gratien, I would say you passed." Professor Sinistra said to her with a smile.
All the dreary thoughts that had been running through her head just moments earlier had vanished as she realized what she said.
"If it weren't so late right now, professor, you would be hearing the most girlish squeal ever!" Cassie said with a face-splitting smile, twirling as she walked towards the stairs.
"Yes, I understand. Do you need any help getting to the village, it's quite late." she asked nicely.
"I would greatly appreciate that, professor. This castle is so big I would probably get lost going down the stairs." Cassie said with an embarrassed smile.
"Come along, then." she said, making polite small talk all the way down to the village. Professor Sinistra saw her to the Three Broomsticks and turned back around to head up to the castle.
"Well? How'd your exams go?" one of the patrons asked. In the past week, she was seen at a table with notes spread out amongst her and the patrons got rather curious.
"I hope I passed them all! I know I did well in Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology. And Professor Sinistra just told me that I passed Astronomy. But Potions is another matter altogether." she answered, her voice exhausted, but the relief was tangible.
"I'm glad you did, dear. Anything to drink? Or will you just retire?"
"The latter, I'm afraid. I am rather exhausted." she answered sheepishly, giving a smile and waving to all the patrons.